Last weekend Nora and I went on a hike in the Smoky Mountains. Whenever we go hiking, we make trail mix — usually just cashews and raisins. This time, however, we had some mixed nuts left over from a party so we decided to use those instead.

But there’s a problem with mixed nuts: invariably there are too many of the nuts you don’t like, and not enough of the ones you do like. Since we had plenty of time to think as we hiked along, Nora and I wondered if it was even possible to create a mixture of nuts that would satisfy everyone. Do the nut manufacturers attempt to do this? Or do they just fill their nut-jars with the cheapest nuts, tossing in a few of the more expensive varieties just to keep people interested?

This, we decided, would be a great question for a Casual Friday. We’ll collect reader preferences about their favorite types of nuts, then next week we’ll compare our survey results to the actual distribution of nuts in a couple of major brands. With any luck, we’ll be able to find out just how different the ultimate nut mixture is from what you can buy at your local supermarket!

This week’s study is very short — just six questions that should take only a minute or two to answer. You’ll have until Thursday, June 19, to answer. There is no limit on the number of responses. Don’t forget to check in next week to see the results!
Note: We’ve changed survey providers, so please let us know in the comments if you have any problems with the new survey engine. Thanks!

I never buy commercial blends of mixed nuts. And the best nuts *evah* are butternuts, which are not available commercially because their natural oil content is so high they tend to go rancid if not eaten fairly soon after harvest.

The party snacks question leaves out the most important option — having small portions of many things. Variety *is* the spice of life.

I would imagine that they would package mixed nuts with profit in mind – which a large proportion of cheaper nuts and a high proportion of more expensive nuts. An interesting side line investigation would be to see if percentage of nut type has a negative correlation with price of the nut.

Funny, there’s a couple of episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm where Larry David and David Schwimmer muse about the same problem. He laughs at a “cashew and raisin” mix that has predominantly raisins with only four cashews.